Zero, Pamela – Living Backwards

This album is a 100% solo production by Pamela Zero, who did everything from the song writing to the lyrics and vocals to the graphic design. She is a member of a collective of multimedia artists known as Discord Aggregate. The striking feature about the music is the prominent role for Pamela’s expressive vocals, which are often used in multi-layered structures, resulting in original choral pieces on an entirely a capella album.
The music seems to have influences from renaissance, folk and ethnic sources, which result in original melodic structures. Harmonic passages are alternated with more experimental pieces. I have to think of varied singers, like Jarboe, Laurie Anderson and Loreena McKennitt, but also of musical and opera. Many tracks make me think of fairytales, like the title track about Alice (“Oh rabbit, sell your watch for a song”).
Not an album that I will play on a daily basis, but an interesting piece of work, that will appeal to people fascinated by the emotions evoked by the human voice.